This article makes more sense than any. Terrorists want to cause terror. We go nuts over every little thing and thus, they succeed, even when they fail i.e. the London liquid plane bombers. They were stopped and we still have to bring air traffic to a grinding halt and raise the panic level. The list of panicy non-threats is seemingly endless i.e. the arrest of the “terrorists” who had bought hundreds of cell phones to resell. Oops! They are capitalists, not terrorists!

We can never win if winning means stopping them. We can always win if winning means not changing our lives to meet their useless threats and feeding them with our hype.

I don’t mean to get all conspiritorial on ya, but, who benefits from this hightened sense of panic?

Second year for this event was funner and more hectic than last year. We Honui brothers of the Fraternal Order of Moai recieved our fezes. Something about that is like being in gang colors, but without the danger. Belonging. All weekend I saw people in their fezes and I didn’t know them really, but I knew they were brothers. Nice.

The Friday night “Feast of the Tiki Gods” was a real treat. The moment I walked in I was transported to that special tiki place I have visited many times. Great food, great friends and great drinks made by Kahiki barmaster Jim, seen here. Plus live music that was great. It’s a special thing to walk up to the musician and drop a buck in the tip jar and ask for “Henehene Kou Aka” and he tears right into it. That’s rare.

The feast was a sell out and the food really was good. As good a buffet as I have had.

Always good to see Hoffa. He drove up from Fort Lauderdale. The man has a passion. He used to live near the Kahiki and moved to Lauderdale under condition that he be in walking distance to the Mai Kai.

This was a stand out for the car show to me. Great details and a great theme on this car.

Like this:

I had not been there in a while, but wandered over looking for a recipe online. I noticed they have made nice additions to the look of the site, but a big new upgrade is the ability to scale a drink recipe. If you are making Mai Tais for 20, this is very handy. It’s smart because it not only tells you how many ounces of everything you need, but how many bottles. A great tool! Here is their Mai Tai page, which has Grenadine in it for some reason…

Like this:

I’ve been reading the Bleat for years now and he has gone further and further into the business of being a grumpy guy and less and less being an amusing commentator on culture. He had the sense to move a lot of it to a separate blog. But today he just lost it. It sounds to me like the rantings of an “old guy” who can’t take the notion that he is a complete square. He spends a lot of words trying to discount any sort of counter culture sensibility as being stupid and has a bad habit of justifying things by pointing out that much much worse things are happening elsewhere in the world. Sort of like “Why are the namby pamby Democrats so up in arms about the goverment spying on them without warrants when North Korea has 100,000 people being tortured to death in secret prisons?” “Why get so up in arms about blacks being kept out of good schools in the 50s when Russia was killing thousands of people every month in Gulags?” Sad. That’s not an argument. Mis-direction.

I read most of the Bleat today and over and over it was just saying, this guy is really a stiff neck jerk. “How dare you rebel against a country that feeds you, Marlon Brando and James Dean!” Lileks, you are a sad old guy. Mr. Unhip. And that seems to make you crazy. You need to start allowing people to reply to your rants on your site. Dialog.

Like this:

Here is our ecstatic vacationing couple having the time of their lives. He is letting his hair down and wearing that crazy shirt neatly tucked in his pants. I’ve seen a lot of these types of pictures and they never cease to amuse me. This is part of a set of maybe 75 slides. Lots of scenery and a good number of old people having fun like this one above. But, there in the middle of the set is a slide that is completely out of place. It just caught me off guard. This image below was likely Grandpa’s highlight of the 1974 trip to Hawaii…

Go Grandpa! Love the tan lines! Makes me wonder. Did he dare to snap this and deal with it when they got home and she saw it? That pose! Just what are the circumstances that led to this single picture of the hot young gal???

I love Mel Henke! And who doesn’t? He is quirky and full of stereo action, plus he has an out front sense of humor in his music without being cliched. Great stuff. Most have heard “La Dolce Henke,” but maybe this LP is new to you. Warner Brothers BS 1447. It’s along the lines of Equivel’s sound scapes.

I am very sick of adults who tell kids that education is useless. Art class? I use skills I learned in art class on a weekly basis. Because art is much more than just drawing or painting. Every sign or ad or television program is just crammed full of art. It’s everywhere! Now, you can do it badly of course, and if you don’t care how things look, you may find it useless. But if you want the sign you make for your business or yard sale to attract customers, you will likley need to draw (pun!) from your high school art education and lay out the elements correctly, balanced and level. That’s just art! Used in normal life!

The one I hear more than any other is the uselessness of Algebra in life. Please! I probably use this basic math skill daily and so do you. Of course, if you never bothered to learn math, you may not use it, but don’t handicap the next generation! Example:

A case of 12 6 ounce cans of cat food costs $3.96 for the Friskies and $8.16 for 24 cans of the Purina. Which is a better value?

Solve for X. 12X= 3.96

Solve for Y. 24Y = 8.16

Whoa. Algebra just let me save a penny a can on cat food! It’s every day life. Yes this is a simple example, but it is still Algebra. Basic math. Stop glorifying stupidity and anti-education. Stop making excuses for kids to be ignorant.

The poster also gave me an address for the other Dwarf Restaurant on Clinton Highway and a look at Google maps and I knew it was correct. I also recalled the buildings, as I pass the daily and it was all coming together. The address I had on the postcard was just plain wrong and sent me on a wild goose chase.

Here you see on the left, the Dwarf building and right of center, the Tate Motel office building and the cleared lot where the motel rooms were. Luckily, Google maps uses older images so this is pre-junk yard.

Here is the best image showing the two buildings in their prime. This is in the mid-1950s and it appears the Tate did not have the office building yet. You gotta love the sign!

Why a dwarf? It predates that Travelocity thing by a few decades.

Here is a later image of the Tate Motel and it looks like the restaurant is no longer the Dwarf. Also note the office building is there.

And here is a postcard of just the Tate Motel with no office. Look at the size of the trees to see this is an early image.

Here is a very early linen card. The roof sign attracted barn-stormers.

“Chicken in the basket” is a take off of the popular “Chicken in the Rough.”

Here it is today. The Dwarf and the Tate. I didn’t bother (or dare) poke around for remnants of the past. Not much to find I am sure and they would not welcome me.

2.5 ounces of lime juice. Wow. That’s a lot. I squeezed my limes and looked at the recipe again. Wow. No freakin way I am making this by the book. I was making two of them for me and the missus to sample, so I put in just 3 ounces of lime juice, along with the Lemon Hart rums and other ingredients.

As I have said before, Ms. Swanky is a tart liker. She gave the drink a solid 8 out of 10 vote. Me, I am a sour hater, so I gave the drink a solid 2. Neither of us would have added in the extra ounce of lime per drink however.

I am surprised to see this on several Tiki Central Top 10 Drink Lists. Maybe when Pablus comes over again, he and Ms. Swanky can tweak the recipe into something great for them. I’ll just watch thanks.

I have often said that, although it is horrible to those affected, terrorism is really a drop in the bucket. Over-reaction is the buzz today. This paper by the Cato institute should be required reading for everyone. I wish the media would get the message. But lawyers and courts make us all victims too. When was the last time anyone you knew was poisoned by a product tampered with in a store? But how many times have you started to squeeze out some mustard or pour some honey and realized you had to open it up and remove the “tamper proof seal?”

“Some sort of terrorist inoculated Tylenol capsules with cyanide in 1982, killing seven people. However, that frightening and much-publicized event (it generated 125,000 stories in the print media alone and cost the manufacturer more than $1 billion) failed to inspire much in the way of imitation.”

In 1982, some demented soul murdered 7 people. Since 1982, we all have been tearing through seals on every damned product under the sun, which annoys us and costs us and the product maker. It’s also likely there just to try to keep you from suing them when some other retard poisons you. That’s right. If Sue Bee honey didn’t put that seal on there and you died because a murderer put poison in your honey, you’d likely try to own their company. That’s pathetic. But that’s life in the USA. We go to war in two countries, search every shoe that comes on a plane, x-ray and feel up luggage, check for metal on people, seal all products, scare and annoy the crap out of everybody for what? Next to nothing. The terrorists have indeed won. No, they didn’t blow us all up. They just made us all so scared of a few dozen guys in the desert that we do all sorts of stupid, costly and annoying things, to ourselves and others. And, I might add, do all these things rather than help out our fellow Americans and humans. Taking money out of positive and helpful pursuits and into all sorts of things that help no one. By the USA declaring war on the terrorists, we have made them our equal. Equal? Yes. As we have not beaten them and never will. They are our nations enemy. And we can no more win against them than we can catch every person on the most wanted list or stop all people from getting hit by lightning or prevent some idiot from removing a tamper proof seal and injecting poison in the ketchup. We have declared war on a few dozen individuals, not a country. It can never end. And as long we continue to choose to fear them and plan our lives around them, they will always exist and they will always “own” us. Every time you tear that seal off your mustard, remember everything that has and continues to be wasted in the name of unwarranted fear.

UPDATE August 13th:I like this article. Something I have said all along. You can’t stop them, just inconvience them, whether it’s terrorists or high school shooters. And this article. Good fodder for conspiracy folks, but it is in the main media…

August 16th: Nice to see more people using intelligence in this theater of terror. I wish our President had used some a few years ago before he lead us down this path. Here is a nice article by a chemistry student about the ridiculous possibility of the liquid explosives and the ridiculous idea we can stop the imaginitive terrorist.

Peggy is pretty hot on this cover for sure. And she is such a cutie-pie on the album for sure. This is a very peppy and fun record and you just have to love Peggy for it. Not much more to say than that! Download it and enjoy!

This is perhaps the third time I have checked out the World’s Longest Yardsale, also known as the Highway 127 yardsale. I am about 45 minutes form highway 127 as it goes through Crossville, TN. The last few times I tried, it was rainy. This weekend, they got plenty of rain, but it was okay today. We checked out a few stops along the way and there was quite a bit there. But, after a bunch of tents, we found very little of interest and the thought of driving far into the hinterland in the heat and humidity was unappealing. So, we hit some antique stores instead. I found a nice Juice-O-Mat for $6 at 75% off and two postcards for $1 each.

I have seen a lot of Tiki Gardens postcards. I think they must have made more than anybody. But I have never seen this one. Maybe for good reason as it is pretty boring, featuring the plain backside of a large tiki and a fully covered old lady.

The second is for”South Sea Island Pacific Ocean Park” in Santa Monica, CA. The card is a bit interesting with a couple of “tiki” poles and such, but the description on the back was worth the whole long drive today: “Cross a beautiful waterfall, then board a gay banana train run by a carefree beachcomber…” Hmmm.

I think the Mai Kai stopped making these calendars in the early 1990s. I have never asked why. Maybe because times changed and people didn’t buy them any more. Maybe they were mostly given to members and they just decided to cut costs. Maybe it just didn’t seem politically correct. I doubt the last one. The Mai Kai has always done things their way and made it work and not bowed to a few people’s opinions. These calendars are certainly not racy.

I came across this article about the Mai Kai today that’s a very interesting read for fans.

This first sampling is Kainoa. She retired from the difficult schedule of dancing for the Mai Kai a while ago due to a knee injury. She dances with Polynesian Proud now, at least sometimes. She danced for the opening of Hukilau 2004 and it was a highlight for me. She is an un-aging island beauty like Mrs. Thornton, who is as beautiful today as ever. And I had the pleasure to meet Kainoa’s mother and, well, they could be sisters, and they could be 20!

This picture has it all! Just look at those drinks! Just look at those lamps! Just look at those heads!Ah, the shrunken heads of the Mai Kai…

A man I would like to meet (have met?) The head mixologist at the Mai Kai, Mariano Licudine. HERE is a nice article on him. He started out at Don the Beachcomber’s before coming to the Mai Kai. He is best known as the inventor of the “Derby Daiquiri,” one of my favorite drinks. I was given the back rooms tour of the Mai Kai by General Manager Kern Mattie and this area is what you don’t see in the Molokai Lounge.What this picture says is still true today. There are many people at the Mai Kai who have been there for decades. The owners treat their staff well because they know that a good staff is important to making the Mai Kai great.

For a perfect way to experience the Mai Kai and it’s magic, (okay I am a bit biased about the event I started and brought there in 2003) come to Hukilau in October when the Mai Kai will be filled to capacity with fans.

I was keeping this on the DL as I heard about it through the FOM earlier, but since Tiki Talk and Humu Humu blogged it, I thought I would too.

Trader Vic’s has come out with a new concept called the Mai Tai bar. This is a very low cost start up compared to a Trader Vic’s restaurant, and it concentrates on the high margin stuff and keeping staffing small, along with the floor plan.

Hans Richter (President of Trader Vic’s International) personally helped make Hukilau 2002 happen. We had been in touch with Sven Koch (V.P. of Trader Vic’s) all along thanks in part to Sven Kirsten, and so, when Trader Vic’s Atlanta decided at the last minute to charge us $2,000 to hold Hukilau there, Hans, who was on vaction at the time, called the manager and said he would cover it and to make it happen. Trader Vic’s has been a sponsor of Hukilau ever since.

I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but, when I emailed Hans yesterday, Sven called me right away to talk about the franchise. Hans was unavailable until the 19th. It sounded very promising. I was further surprised when Hans called me about an hour later.

I started on the plans to open a tiki bar here in Knoxville in 2005. I spent time talking to James about his experience with the Kahiki Moon. I talked to Brad about Hale Tiki. I talked to tikiskip about the restaurant he owned and ran in Columbus. I learned all I could about the restaurant business and researched the Polynesian restaurant business.

We had started out thinking we wanted to do something very small like the Tiki Ti. That turned out to be impossible by the laws of Tennessee. What we ended up with was a very streamlined place, geared towards the drink menu. The menu would be such that a small kitchen staff could manage it and a small kitchen could prepare and cook it. The food would be there to compliment the drinks. The main thrust is the drink menu. Live music, fun events, special happy hours and regular all out luaus were in the plan. The general idea is to concentrate on the high margin stuff and lower operating costs while maintaining great quality and ambience.

So when I saw the Trader Vic’s Mai Tai bar concept, I saw what I had been working on for a year made better. Since the Mai Kai does not do franchises, the other option is Trader Vic’s. And this is perfect. The Trader Vic’s brand, their quality menu, thier great staff, their barware, etc. scaled into a lean, high margin bar with emphasis on fun and entertainment. It was all I had in mind to do, plus Trader Vic’s name.

I learned from Hans that the cost of the franchise and opening the bar was more than I was planning, but not out of line. I beleive there are costs to be cut here and there. Most people opening a place like this are not that worried about saving $20,000 on kitchen equipment, but I am. There are ways to do this cheaper. I can envision these opening up in smaller cities all over the US. It’s a great concept.

The first one to open will likely be the Hawaii location. The Spain location is set to open this summer. The image on the Spain site is actually the Hawaii location and it looks beautiful.

I don’t know that I can open a Mai Tai bar here, but I am looking into it. I really think this concept will work all over and I am excited to see it. There are even no restrictions on opening the Mai Tai bar in markets where the restaurant already exists.